decision and what life has been like for him since. thanks so much for watching today. i'll see you back here at the top of the hour. >> it was good to be with you this morning. "your bottom line" starts right now. >> thanks, you guys. see you at the top of the hour. good morning, everyone. i'm christine romans. there are signals that we're finally reaching the end to the partisan divide in washington. imagine if we weren't focused on short-term crisis and washington could focus on big ideas. where would they begin? immigration reform, but probably not for the reasons you would think. emerging consensus on immigration. >> our journey is not complete until we find a better way to welcome the striving, hopeful immigrants who still see america as a land of opportunity. >> for those of us who are born and raised in this country sometimes it's easy to forget

how special america is. >> pathway to legal citizenship for illegal immigrants. >> the stars seem to be aaligned to get comprehensive reform on immigration. >> reporter: there was a moment like this in 2005. that moment passed by stereotypes remained. even now cartoons like "south park" articulate the fear some americans feel and reality shows like "border wars" show how far some will go for a shot at the american dream. it's up to this bunch to decide what immigration reform is. >> i'm personally insulted that anyone would use even loosely the term of racism. >> game on. i've got two of the smartest political minds on the network with me this morning. ron brownstein, editor at the national journal and ana navaro. good morning to both of you.

>> good morning. >> harry reid says it's a top priority for democrats this year. ron, put everything else aside, gun violence, job bills, debt, budget debates, obamacare in the first term. all of that aside. is immigration -- the stars really aaligned like david plouffe says? >> i think the odds are better for this than almost anything else on the big ticket items on president obama's second term agenda. that still doesn't guarantee it gets done. basically you have a situation where the democratic party has co-ale coalesced and there's a clear interest for republicans to get something done after an election which mitt romney lost 71% of hispanic voters, despite an unemployment rate in double digits among hispanics. the problem is, as it was in 2005-2006, is the house, very few house republicans in districts with meaningful hispanic population and the likely outcome is that the only way this gets passed is if john

boehner is willing to pass a bill that many house republicans oppose. there is a political interest in both parties in getting this done. >> you mentioned 2005 and 2006. i want to bring in the last two big pushes for immigration reform. 1986, ronald reagan fixed the problem of illegal immigration by this. three main parts. employer sanctions, border enforcement and legalization for unauthorized immigrants, about 2.7 million people received permanent residency as a result of that amnesty, a word that politically no one wants to use anymore. since then illegal immigration continued. fast forward to 2005. all congress and the bush administration could agree on was building one big fence. ana, why is today's immigration debate different than it was in 2005? >> i think the politics is different but also there's a national security component that was not there, you know, when reagan did his amnesty in 1986.

it is now a national security imperative, christine, to know who is here, to bring them out of the shadows and also a national security imperative to secure the border. this is not optional. i think ron is completely right in what he's saying. you know, look, the democrats have a huge debt of latino voters and the republicans understand they have a huge need for latino voters and the combination of those two things are working for immigration reform. we are seeing in the immigration issue what we're not seeing on any other issue, which is there is a unique, independent congressional group on both sides, on the house and the senate. democrats and republicans that have been working independently on their own for months now, developing a bipartisan agreement. that is unique in washington today. >> we also know that when we talk about comprehensive immigration reform, ron, three words that mean different things to different people.

>> right. >> couple of strategists have told me don't use amnesty, it's pathway to citizenship. they've been down this road. it was difficult to sell in 2005. so tell me -- >> right. >> -- specifically what comprehensive immigration reform looks like. does it look like amnesty? is there a high-tech component where we allow more people to come in, study here and stay here? what's in it? >> it has three or four major components that have been described that way, really, since the middle part of this decade. one is tougher enforcement on the border. he could is tougher enforcement in the workplace. with some kind of electronic high-tech system to clarify and identify whether people are here legally before they work. some kind of guest worker program, critical to bringing in business. some kind of high-tech -- increasing the number of people who are here, who can come and stay if they get advanced degrees and finally a pathway to citizenship or as conservatives would call it, amnesty. the politics are very similar now to 2006.

just as in 2006 we see a broad coalition developing with labor, chamber of commerce and church groups. and people forget in 2006, almost two dozen senate republicans voted for a bill that included all of those elements, including a pathway to citizenship. it died because the house republicans would not bring it up. i think you could see a very similar situation this year where i think it is likely you could get 60 votes or something like that in the senate. the critical question once again will be, will house republicans bring it up even if most of them oppose it? >> i want to go back to something ana was saying about the debt. the debt that democrats have and the need tha republicans have for it. you look at the exit polling, and it's critically clear, obama got 71% of the latino vote. in 2008, mccain did a little better. let's go back to 2004.

kerry, who lost, pulled in 53%. topping double digits, 10% of the voter base. so, ana, those house republicans have to be very, very careful if they want to be relevant. >> they know that, christine. i just spent three days with the republican house conference at their retreat in williamsburg, virginia. and this was a big part and a big theme of the three-day conference. we need to do better with minorities. we need to do better specifically with hispanics. we need to change the tone. we need to have a message. they absolutely know it. i left there feeling a very much more optimistic republican than when i got there. i heard a better reception. i heard an acknowledgement. i heard a desire to do something from a vast majority of the republicans that were there. and i think john boehner, going back to the issue that he's going to have to be on board, i think he is on board. i've had conversations with him about this and i believe that he

understands just how important this is to do. so, this is -- you know, we are in a better place. it's still going to require threading the needle. immigration will never be an easy subject to do. not only conservatives are calling it amnesty, interestingly enough, senator marco rubio a couple of days ago came out with his own plan, advancing, preempting president obama. and he's gotten great reviews from some of the most conservative members of the base and the conservative influentials. in fact, he's also gotten good reviews from the white house. when was the last time you saw that happen? >> i know. >> so, you know, we're in a pretty good place. it's got to be comprehensive because in a comprehensive plan, there is something everybody can find. there's at least one thing everybody can find to love and at least one thing everybody can find to hate. >> ana navarro -- >> that's going to be sticks and carrots. >> that's politics for you, right? consensus emerging in washington, immigration reform.

why is a money show talking about immigration? because it's about jobs, growing an economy and getting a broken immigration system out of our way and immigration system for the 21st century. ron brownstein, ana navarro, thank you. >> thank you. america thought it had fixed a broken immigration system before, giving people a pathway to citizenship. >> future generations of americans will be thankful for our efforts to humanly regain control of our borders and therefore preserve the value of american sit stenship. >> why it could be the key to the jobs bottom we desperately need. als now... at officemax.

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>> call me skeptical but when politicians opine about immigration reform, they're whooing voting blocs. but immigration reform done right isn't about elections. it's about jobs. the debate over immigration reform comes down to this not so simple question. do we favor families or skills? our future depends on science, technology, engineering and math. about a third of graduate students in stem are foreign born, studying here on temporary visas. after graduation, many who want to stay are not allowed to. every hundred foreign-born stem create 262 jobs, half in silicon valley and quarter nationwide were founded by immigrants. if america is going to lead the next century, it has to grow these kinds of jobs. the trick is staying true to america's compassion, too. our canadian neighbors have no quotas for skilled immigrant workers. they actually seek them out. the uk is becoming more

selective, offering admission to the country by a points system. usually china sends workers around the world. now they're giving people coming there looking for jobs. they issue a small number of green card equivalents to friends of the communist party but most workers there are in an unregulated environment. i want to bring in the author of "the immigrant exodus," vivek wadhwa, a stanford university law school fellow and research at duke university. we welcome to the program. i want to ask you, can america lead the world with its current immigration rules and quotas? what should immigration reform look like? >> right now we're losing the war. what's happening is that we've brought in hundreds of thousands of really smart people from all over the world to study. we educated them and gave them experience in working for our

companies and innovate like we do. now we're telling them, sorry, we don't have enough visas for you. go back home. they're doing that. tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people have already gone back who are now starting companies in india, chien wra and brazil, all over the world. the start-ups and the economic growth that should be here in america is happening abroad because of our mindless immigration policies. you know, we keep talking about the unskilled, undocumented -- i'm sorry. >> go ahead. finish your thought. >> these are the legal -- people here legally. we're talking about doctors, scientists, engineers, researchers, people who came here legally. we brought them in over here. now we're sending them away. >> if you talk about the h-1 visa program, that's a nonimmigrant visa. come here, study, work. it's not a path for a green card. >> exactly. >> do we need to remake the whole system? you want these people to come and stay and invest and live. >> absolutely. absolutely. if we bring smart people here,

we want them to come here as americans, think like us, be like us. we want them to start companies like silicon valley entrepreneurs do. we don't want them to come here like temporary workers. they go back, we lose the labor. when skilled workers go back, we lose the intellectual property, the talent, the ability to innovate. that's what the problem is. >> many people argue that these favor the employer not the employee and some people can't get get ahead, especially in those agriculture categories. there's concern of how a lot of people are treated. >> absolutely. >> that's a subject for another time. >> absolutely. >> almost 700,000 people became new americans. there's a cap on h-1b visas. when you add it all up, we grant ed 269,000 visa applications. those are bigger numbers than any other country has. >> as a percentage of

population, canada imports more skilled immigrants. australia imports more skilled immigrants than we do. you also have to realize what's driving our economy's technology. this is the epicenter of innovation in the world. 52% of the start-ups are founded by people like me. so we want more of these people. 1 million immigrants you talked about, only 140,000 were skilled immigrants. bring in half a million skilled immigrants and let them start companies over here, uplift the economy, make the pie bigger, create jobs so that we don't have the recession we're suffering through. we can do it. it's very easy. we just have to fix the laws. >> the trick here will be doing this in a compassionate way so that you don't have the optics in washington where you're favoring skilled, educated workers and you're not favoring any more the families of people that are already here. it's really been based on family ties until now. it's a hard sell to tell people,

you know what? we're going to be favoring a different group of immigrants than the groups we have historically. >> i agree. it shouldn't be either/or. we need the families and the skilled workers. what i'm saying is that we need the skilled workers more than ever because our economy is in a slump. let's get them to start companies and boost the economy and employ more americans. and also bring in the -- you know, the undocumented, unskilled workers and solve the bigger problem. >> vivek wadhwa, thank you very much. the book is called "the immigrant exokdus." we'll talk to you soon. i have a feeling in 2013 we'll be talking more about comprehensive immigration reform. >> i agree. >> thank you, sir. american dream, big home, white picket fence. three ways to make money in real estate again. oh, i like it! [ garth ] sven's small business earns 2% cash back on every purchase, every day! woo-hoo!!! so that's ten security gators, right? put them on my spark card!

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you've heard of the year of

the dragon and the rat, now economists at deutsche bank say 2013 will be the year of the house. housing has been one of the few sectors of the economy to be clearly in recovery. americans bought 4.7 million homes last year, up nearly 10%. that makes last year the best year for home sales since before the recession began in 2011. the national association of realtors says this year will be even better. another sign the market is improving -- homes aren't spending quite so long up for sale. about 73 days on the market. that's down from 99 days a year ago. what's driving this recovery? more americans are finding work. the economy added 1.8 million jobs in 2012. home prices bottomed out in 2012, and they're rising again. sales of distressed properties dropped, as well. that helped push median home prices up, up more than 6% last year, strongest gain since 2005. mortgage rates remain near record lows. rates fell steadily last year. today, the average rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage is around

3.4%. all those factors make this a great time to buy and a great time to refinance. same condo, same owner, three different interest rates in just three years. >> november, 2009, 5.125. november, 2010, refinished, it was 4.25. now 3.6. >> real estate sean brecht bought his condo in 2009. >> 650 square feet. 15-foot ceilings. >> reporter: since then he's refinished twice, sticking with a 30-year fixed rate mortgage. >> my first refinance, my mortgage payment dropped about $350 a month. from there, it will drop another possibly $400 a month. >> sinking mortgage rates save him $750 a month. rates have fallen from about 4% to around 3.4% in the past year.

a couple of years ago, 6% was considered super low and once in a lifetime. if you're sitting on a mortgage now that is 5.25% or 6%, what should you be doing? >> call your loan officer. >> you should not be paying more than -- >> not be above 4.5%. >> but lenders are saying -- who should be refinancing? >> anyone with equity in the house, who's working, can show a good credit score, and has money in the bank. >> after they ran my credit, all they needed was my last year's tax forms. then it was a matter of formality of signing the paperwork and doing it. >> step number two, run the numbers. >> you have to do the economics to make sure that you're recouping your closing costs within the amount of time that you'll stay in the house. >> stop procrastinatinprocrasti. if you qualify the sooner you close, the sooner you save. >> seems like a no brainer to me. if you can save even $100 to $150 a month it seems worth it.

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i just told you about the milestone in the housing market. here are the winners in real estate now -- refinancers, first-time home buyers, cash investors, and flippers. last year was the best year for housing since 2007. this year is forecast to be even better. the same time, the dow and s&p 500 also hit five-year highs. back to levels last seen before the great recession walloped the market and the economy. many of you missed the big stock market rally, though, last year. only recently pouring money back into the market. it's human nature. you need convincing before you feel comfortable investing. by the time you're convinced, the money has already been made. you're fearful when you should have been greedy. don't take my word for it. after all, i'm no oracle. >> you wanted to be greedy when others are fearful. you want to be fearful when

others are greedy. it's that simple. >> that's billionaire investor warren buffett. two things drive stocks -- fear and greed. look at the fear and money index. shows extreme greed is moving the market. a week ago, same thing. a month ago, it was neutral. the stock market winnings are disconnected right now from what you're talking about around the kitchen table, right? the american money conversation is still about jobs. finding one, getting a better one, succeeding in your career. the president has been hired, rehired now for four more years for his job. in his inaugural speech this week, he mentioned your job prospects a handful of times. while washington pivots to debt negotiations, immigration reform, gun control, the only thing, the only thing that will truly build this president's legacy -- meaningfully growing jobs this year. stocks are up, housing's coming back. it's robust jobs growth we're still waiting for. are you feeling the recovery? find us on facebook and twitter, our handle is cnnbottomline, my handle is @christinom